The contract is signed on your birthday!
by Aines445
Summary: Hitomi's birthday parties were always the same each year but that was fine, they were always fun either way, there was no need for change. Unfortunately for her, that pleasant pattern was now broken by a strange birthday present that would change her life in more ways than one; and what was that about contracts again? (AU)
1. Prologue

**First Words:**

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Hello there! 8D

I present you with the start (or I guess the prologue) of this strange story that was neither written ahead nor planned ahead (for the most part) in which finally, _Fran is a main character!_ Seriously, I have been writing so many stories (most of them unpublished) with characters that I usually don't write and I have always wanted to write a story with Fran so you can't possibly imagine my happiness; I mean, he is my favourite character of all that I have seen!

This time I also have an OC but she is named unlike my other story so I guess this will be more OC-centered? Even so, all of the other characters will show up since we're still in Namimori. This chapter might be a little too short on Fran but don't worry, stuff only truly begins in Chapter 1 and you'll get an explanation as to what the hell happened.

Anyway, I learned many things while writing this chapter, one of them being the fact that Fran's exact hair color is _Spring Green! Marvelous, marvelous Spring Green!_ XD Seriously though, I thought it was teal until I actually looked it up and found out that it had absolutely nothing with teal so I was like, "Then lol do I have to say that it's green?" Well, I do since I'm not assuming that you know all of the different shades of green, especially Spring Green.

Now for a glossary of stuff, yay:

**-san ****= neutral, normal, polite**;

**-chan = cute, endearing, friendly;**

**-kun = pretty much -chan except that it's for guys or for a junior in stuff like work positions or school (not that I'll use it for that in this story, I think...);**

******-sama = respectful, of a much higher status than you**

******-dono = between -san and -sama in terms of respect, I guess (I know, I suck at this kind of thing);**

******-****senpai = senior in things like school (that's just an example though), in other words, a grade above you;**

**************(O)nii/ee-san/chan/sama = Older brother or sister or a young woman or man that you don't actually know (older than you, most likely).**

If there's any other honorific that I'll use that I haven't put here I'll just put it in the chapter where it's used so this doesn't get turned into a huge list ^^

_italics = thoughts, emphasis_

**bold = intensity, an increase in volume  
**

_**bold and italics = greater intensity, greater increase in volume**_

'...' = mocking tone, quotation marks

"..." = dialogue

(...) = informing things

Anyway, enjoy! =3

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**Prologue: The strange birthday present**

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Today was a pretty good day for Hitomi Hirosaka; after all, it was her birthday, what could go wrong with that?

She would usually be treated nicer by everyone, people would do her favors even without her asking for them and she would usually get a surprise party whenever she got home from school.

Considering those three things above, Hitomi was very excited with the prospect of going home, even though she was going home alone. She would usually go home with her best friend Eri Tachibana but right when the school bell resounded through the whole school, Hitomi only saw her running out of the classroom without waiting for her.

That, judging from every year, could only mean that she was going to Hitomi's house so she could surprise her. Knowing that, Hitomi made no effort to catch up to her and calmly went home with a smile on her face, very excited for the party but only showing it slightly, as she always did.

When she finally got there, she noticed that the door was unlocked; this was on purpose. _Even though it's supposed to scare me, they really should stop doing this; what if some stranger goes in our house?_ Hitomi sighed and slowly opened the door to find the entrance darker than what it would usually be.

Taking her shoes off and putting her school bag aside, she slowly and soundly (so that everyone would notice) walked towards the living room as she knew that they would be there. She never liked that the house would be especially darker on this occasion since she already knew what was going to happen and she hated getting scared.

She quickly spotted the closed living room door which was usually wide open and slowly opened it to-

_**"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"**_

Hitomi couldn't even completely open the door before that much noise reached her ears all of sudden and honestly managed to scare her. _Why does it always work...?_ Seeing as the lights were now on, she opened the door normally and looked somewhat serious in an attempt to pretend that she didn't get scared at all.

She could see Eri sitting on the couch and laughing loudly as Hitomi's mother and younger sister were next to the birthday cake, waiting for her to get close to it and blow out the candles. "The door totally closed for a second when we did that, didn't it?!" Eri asked while laughing as if already knowing the answer and finding it to be hilarious.

"We got her this time, that's for sure," Miki, Hitomi's sister said while smiling mischievously, exchanging glances with Eri. If there was one thing that Hitomi never really liked, that was the combination of Eri and Miki: it was a truly frightening duo.

Masako, Hitomi's mother, only chuckled at her words and gave Hitomi an expectant look, almost as if telling her to hurry up already except in a positive way, like she always did. Hitomi complied and when she got close enough to the chocolate cake with pink lettering that said, 'Happy Birthday', she blew the two boot-themed candles with relative ease.

It was quite an odd choice for candles, but that was only because they knew that Hitomi would like them; she always did and she always will. "Happy birthday, Hitomi," Masako repeated in a calmer and yet warmer tone while taking the knife that was next to the cake and started cutting the slices, the first being for Hitomi; after all, that was how it always went.

... And how it always went was always the best of ways, Hitomi noted as the first slice was carefully put on her plate. _Nothing goes wrong with chocolate, that's for sure..._

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**. . .**

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"Man, I am _so_ full," Eri complained and with good reason, having eaten the most slices of the cake. She would always do that every year and it never seemed like she would learn to eat cake in moderation; it was simply too delicious for her. "I bet I can't even move right now..."

Miki, now sitting next to her on the couch, gave Eri a look of confusion as she exclaimed, "How can you even say that? This party's barely over! What about the presents?!" Miki did know what the presents were but even so, she was excited for them: she always liked Hitomi's expression which was usually hiding her great excitement over the expectation of getting new shoes; after all, Hitomi never was one to completely express her emotions.

"The presents? Oh yeah...!" Eri grinned at the thought of her own present and at what reaction Hitomi would have when opening it. _I bet she'll think I got her some boots but I'm way more creative than that! It's not like she didn't need new sandals anyway so they might as well be flashy, right?_ She thought as her grin turned into a devious smirk of strange yet not completely evil intonations.

Hitomi, who was still next to the table where the cake used to be before it was mercilessly devoured, turned to Eri as she realized that she had completely forgotten about the presents. After all, she was having so much fun that there would be no way that she would even think of those.

Now that she was reminded of them though, a glint of excitement was visible in her eyes as she looked around the room to find them. _Now where did they put my new boots this time?_ Judging by the previous years, she figured that they were at the right corner (from the door) of this room, all put in a very small pile.

And she was right, her smile widening in victory (but only slightly) as she went closer to the presents. "Hey, wait for us!" Miki dragged a groaning Eri as she said that, stopping when she was right behind Hitomi. Masako only watched in amusement, getting reminded of the other birthday parties for Hitomi; they were definitely days that she treasured, along with many others.

Just at first sight, Hitomi could see that at least two of the presents were definitely boots: that was one of the abilities that she had developed after many years of observing presents but she had yet to master such a skill completely.

From all of them though, there was one present that stood out from the others: it was a somewhat large, perfectly neat box wrapped in green wrapping paper closed with black ribbon and a small bow on top of the same color which also looked strangely cute. If there was something that Hitomi couldn't understand with it though, it was the choice of colors._ Green and black? I don't see that one often..._ "Who is this from?" Hitomi asked in wonder, trying to remember any member of her family that would give presents like that.

"I dunno, is there note somewhere?" Eri answered awkwardly as she didn't exactly know all of Hitomi's family; the only people that she knew somewhat well were Masako and Miki because she would go to Hitomi's house often.

From Eri's prompt, Hitomi crouched and looked closely for any sort of note that could identify the person that gave this present. Fortunately, it was loosely hanging on the black bow, making it not that hard to find.

When Hitomi reached in to see what was written in there though, the present started fading away, leaving _mist_ behind. _What..?_ Such a thing was so sudden that Hitomi fell back from her crouching position as she had yet to process what was going on. "What's happening?!" She could hear Miki ask in distress, making it clear that she was definitely not behind this.

As the mist spread throughout the area and became less thick by the second, Hitomi could finally see what was in front of her.

Sitting on the far too small pile of presents in a seemingly uncomfortable position was a boy somewhat older than her by a few years with green hair and equally green eyes with a strange blue-ish purple marking below each of them. Despite that, the oddest part about his appearance was definitely the abnormally large black hat cutely shaped in the form of a frog's head; its big eyes were permanently staring to the side innocently, Hitomi noted.

The boy had a somewhat apathetic expression, even at the fact that Hitomi was on the floor because of him and that her feet could almost touch his legs from the proximity (not that it wasn't expected as she had to get close to him for this to even happen in the first place).

"Happy birthday...!" The boy exclaimed yet it had so little emotion that it could barely be taken seriously; the way that he dragged the words in the same apathetic tone could only contribute to this. He had also started clapping for a while but that was short-lived, creating a strange silence in the room.

This was new; too new in fact, as Hitomi was still in the middle of processing what just happened and who the hell was the person in front of her. Having had so many years of a seemingly normal birthday, this was an anomaly to say the least but Hitomi had never really wished for any anomaly to begin with.

_What kind of birthday surprise is this supposed to be?!_

**. . .**

Today... had turned into a strange day for Hitomi Hirosaka; after all, that was when she had discovered that things could go terribly wrong on her birthday.

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**Author's Notes:**

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**Hitomi Hirosaka:** A quiet and reserved person who chooses to not be too emotional; because of that, people usually think that she's shy when she just chooses not to speak. She is an intuitive person of actions over words that has a very blunt attitude but her humble personality makes her be weaker to favors in that regard. She also has a strange love for any shoes, particularly boots; messing with her shoes is unforgivable.

I literally just wrote this out of a whim that came from this idea that I already had for some time: this time, it actually succeeded. I guess the difference between this attempt and the previous ones is the fact that this one is much more comedic than the others: the others were very dramatic and sad for some reason which really isn't my thing; I really am best suited for comedy. If you really want to know how those ideas went, I'll explain it like this:

_Once upon a time,_

_a girl on her EMO prime_

_too serious for her own good,_

_the fact that she sucked as a comedic foil became well-understood._

_In another attempt_

_a girl's mother died,_

_and in the middle of this sad event_

_Fran's involvement in the story couldn't be properly tied._

Yes, I suck at poetry T_T Anyway, I guess you can look forward to the next chapter, maybe? I hope so ^^'


	2. Chapter 1

**First Words:**

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This story got 2 followers and a favourite, hell yeah! 8D

Anyway, this chapter is _big:_ at least it's the most recent of the big chapters that I've written and I'm kind of freaking out because of that since I'm so self-conscious with my word count on my other story. Whatever, it's Fran, it has to be long. Speaking of that:

_**FRAAAAAAAN!**_

Like, you don't understand how much I have wanted to write a story with Fran in it, you really don't. Either way, this chapter is pretty much picking up from where the prologue left off of and completely setting up the story: finally, you'll get why I talk about contracts on the title and summary! The title was kind of a strange choice though, wasn't it? As I see it, you have to say it like this: _The contract is signed on yo birthday, BEOTCH! _Because if you don't, it doesn't sound as cool.

The ironic part about this story is the fact that although it's about contracts, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about it is birthday presents; I think you can understand that from the fact that the summary and title have that 'birthday thing' to them that is really misleading: it's not like we'll be talking about birthdays throughout the whole story! As I'm seeing it, I think this story is going to be this strange comedic tale of these people dealing with Fran and the other KHR characters that will eventually appear before them and I do hope that it's enjoyable; wish me luck?

_Flashback scenes = they are ALWAYS separated with the horizontal lines and completely written in italics. _Thoughts and empahsis are written normally, like this.

Anyway, enjoy!

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**Chapter 1: Signing the contract**

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"Whoa, this is such a boring birthday party; I'd assume you'd do more than just stare at me," Fran remarked as he looked around him: Hitomi was in front of him while Eri and Miki were standing next to her and Masako was right behind her, looking more thoughtful than wary.

"Oh, maybe there's something on my face? It could've been the crumbs of that chocolate cake if you hadn't eaten all of it; you might get fat, you know?" Although he spoke as if he was too dense to figure out the situation, he knew about it perfectly and somehow that could be conveyed through the strange way that he spoke: even though he was being really rude at the moment, there was barely any emotion in his voice, almost as if he was being constantly sarcastic or just not caring at all.

What he had just said only suggested that he had been there all along and as Hitomi thought about it, she found herself feeling more and more uncomfortable. "Just... who the hell are you?" Eri finally asked the question that everyone wanted to ask, still looking slightly stunned. She would've assumed that this was some sort of member of the Hirosaka family that she didn't know about but the fact that everyone was as stunned as she was only proved that wrong.

"Me? My name is Fran. My master never told me about you though so who are you? I guess he forgot to tell me that there was a twin sister in the family; I see that my master is as absent-minded as always." Said master would have definitely stabbed him if he had heard such a thing but _leaving that aside,_ Eri was only more confused at who the hell this person happened to be even when he had just given out his name.

_Okay, when are we going to call the police again?_ Eri was giving Hitomi a look that clearly said, "Help me!" as she had given up trying to speak to Fran; unfortunately, Hitomi was never one to talk for others. "Speaking of that," he started talking again, having expected that no one would say anything and took out something from one of his pockets; it was a set of _very_ old papers, neatly folded together so as to fit the pocket that they came from, "I'm supposed to renew this contract with someone named Hitomi, I assume that's the girl on the floor looking like an idiot?"

Somehow, Fran sounded apathetic while saying anything, Hitomi noted as she glared at him for the insult, choosing to stay quiet anyway. He was also pointing at Hitomi almost as if to make sure that everyone could tell that he was talking about her even though everyone knew who it was already. "Is that death glare supposed to be a yes or are you just that rude to people that ask you questions?"

Hitomi found irony in the fact that he was saying that since he was the one being rude; she could only assume that he was saying that on purpose. "Um," Miki tried speaking up but found no words coming to her mind, making her look at the ground in embarrassment; Miki was never good with strangers, especially when they were as weird as Fran.

"... Could it be that you are the one apprentice that Mukuro was talking about?" Masako suddenly asked, making everyone immediately stare at her as she had been so quiet throughout this whole event. _Mukuro?_ Eri thought in confusion, mainly due to the fact that from what Masako was asking, Fran could really be some lost family member that she wasn't aware of.

Meanwhile, Hitomi was striving to remember someone with that name, feeling that it was all too familiar to her. "Oh, so you know my master...?! Then I did barge into the right house; I almost thought that I became the wrong person's birthday present." Even though he said that, there was absolutely no tone of relief (or of any emotion at all) in his voice; only a slight change in its volume as he was definitely (slightly) louder than before.

_So you admit that you came in uninvited?!_ Miki thought in disbelief, not knowing how to let such a reaction out because it was that weird to her. "You could've come at a better time," Masako scolded, looking serious for the first time in the course of the birthday party. "I haven't explained anything to her yet."

"But that has nothing to do with me, you're the one that was supposed to explain it to her," Fran retorted while shrugging yet still looking apathetic about the situation; Miki could only wonder on how someone could ever manage to be like that, as not even her older sister could pull it off successfully.

Meanwhile, Hitomi was more confused than ever. _Explain what? And what does it have to do with me?_ She glanced at her mother, noticing her serious expression; Hitomi could see that she was definitely not kidding. "If we really have to talk about this now," Masako sighed before continuing her sentence, "We should make ourselves more comfortable; this will be a long story..."

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**. . .**

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_At the young age of 5 years old, Hitomi had gotten bored of playing with the few toys that she had; looking at her mother's shoes had also started to get boring after a while and for that reason, she ran downstairs to check on what her mother was doing (and if it was something fun to do in the first place)._

_Before she could even reach the kitchen though (assuming that was where she was at), she could hear the front door being opened; out of curiosity, Hitomi went to check on who it was. What she had seen was strange, to say the least: a young man with dark blue hair that reminded her of a pineapple and eyes of different colors had closed the door and entered as he pleased, even though it wasn't his house._

_"... Who are you?" Hitomi managed to ask although it was almost in a whisper as she was somewhat intimidated by the person before her: in her opinion, he looked really creepy. Noticing her, the young man looked down at her curiously, yet he was still smiling in a devious way._

_That only made a child like Hitomi more scared of him and he could notice that well; if anything, that only made him more amused. "Kufufufu, that would be my question," he said as he walked closer to Hitomi, making more contrast to each other's height. "But assuming by your age you must be Masako's daughter; it would seem like this is the second time that we meet. Your name was Hitomi, was it not?"_

_"... Yeah. But when did we meet before?" Hitomi was still hesitant in talking to this person, but she was far too curious about what he was saying to go away._

_She could only wish that her mother would come quickly, if she would even come at all. "Kufufu, you were still a baby at the time so of course you have no memories of it. I didn't stay long either; your crying was far too loud," he answered while (miraculously) managing to keep that smile of his even at the last part of what he had said, although it was definitely not as wide as before._

_Hitomi only pouted in response and before anything else could be said, Masako had gotten to the entrance. "Mukuro, do you even know how much time has passed without you ever returning- _Hitomi!"_ She had only noticed that Hitomi was around when she was already a fair distance from the young man that was apparently named Mukuro, having assumed that Hitomi would still be upstairs. "What are you doing here?"_

_"I heard the door so I went to see who it was and it was a scary man! He says that he knows me!" If Mukuro was any normal person, he would be bothered by the fact that he was called scary by Hitomi but seeing as this was Mukuro of all people, he took no offense from that._

_If anything, he found amusement in the fact that he was scaring her. Masako chuckled at Hitomi's reaction to the situation, more relaxed from seeing that nothing had happened to her. "Really? You don't have to worry about him though, he's been a friend of the family for a very long time." The fact that there was no need to worry was a complete lie but she had no choice but to say it so that Hitomi could relax (at least slightly) in his presence._

_After all, if there was anything that Masako had learned from knowing Mukuro for so many years, it was the fact that he was _not_ trustworthy, even when bound by a contract; the fact that he would be away from the house so often (and for so much time) could only prove that. "A friend, you say?" Mukuro was ready to object but Masako glared at him for a split second before her smile returning as if she had never done that in the first place; this was a warning although she was not sure if he would comply to it._

_"... Really?" Hitomi asked, still suspicious as she stared intently at Mukuro. "If you say so..." Even though she had her uncertainties, the fact that her mother had said it could only mean that it was true, or at least that was her reasoning._

_Masako smiled warmly at Hitomi's words while Mukuro narrowed his eyes from the 'warning' that Masako had given to him. It wasn't like he had stayed quiet because she wanted him to, it was simply because there was no need to give out details to a child as young as Hitomi; yes, it was simply a waste of effort. "Anyway, lunch is just about ready so you can go on ahead to the dining table, okay?"_

_With that said, Hitomi did not hesitate as she nodded happily and ran all the way through the corridor, not even thinking about the fact that Mukuro was left alone with Masako._

_This marked the first time (in her memory) that Hitomi had ever met Mukuro Rokudo, and it was certainly not the last..._

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**. . .**

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_Ah, Mukuro Rokudo, I remember now!_ With everyone now occupying both couches (there were two in the living room) and the things related to the birthday party set aside, Hitomi had finally remembered why the name Mukuro sounded so familiar to her, even though that was probably not what they were mainly going to talk about. _He used to eat most of the chocolate cookies and threaten me for comparing his hair to a pineapple, he was so weird._

_He'd barely come over too... What does he do anyway?_ "I'm finally out of that corner... It was very uncomfortable, you know? This hat wouldn't even let me lean on the walls properly, it was terrible," Fran commented in his usual tone, pointing to the huge frog hat on his head.

"Then why do you wear it in the first place?" Eri asked, looking perplexed. She had no idea on how to deal with Fran and it showed; unfortunately, she was the most talkative out of the whole group, leaving her with no choice but to point things out for them. _Sometimes I wish Hitomi would talk some more..._ Eri thought, making a troubled expression.

Fran, who happened to be sitting next to both Eri and Miki, turned to her almost immediately. "It's not like I wear this because I have weird interests: it's a curse, a curse from a fake prince," Fran answered in far too simple way to explain something as dramatic as a 'curse from a fake prince'.

"A what?" Eri couldn't help but have this slip out of her thoughts from how ridiculous his words were: who would ever believe that? Besides, it was far too obvious to her that Fran would definitely possess strange interests so she was assuming that it was a lie.

Sitting at the couch opposite of the one where Fran and the others were at, Masako smiled in a far too cheerful way for the situation as she remarked, "Then you must have gone through quite the tough time, Fran-kun!" Everything about that sentence and her expression only showed that she trying to dismiss the topic on purpose; even so, Masako was far too scary with that smile to be opposed._ It's too early to talk about Curse Contracts._ "Anyway, weren't you supposed to renew the contract?"

"... What is the contract about? I'm still missing an explanation here," Hitomi finally spoke up, looking straight at Fran with a determined glint in her eyes as he seemed to know everything. Whether he would actually explain everything to Hitomi though, that was another matter entirely.

_Nee-chan... She must be as confused as we are, if not more,_ Miki thought while staring at Hitomi in worry as from what she had heard, this seemed to be mostly about her. "Oh, she talks...!" Fran exclaimed as if an animal had suddenly started speaking even though he still sounded indifferent to the situation.

Fran was about to comment on this further but he was brought back on track for the conversation by the sound of Masako coughing, obviously on purpose. "I see that I have no choice but to explain so," Fran paused as he started unfolding the old set of papers until they were their normal size and flipping some pages to get to where he wanted to, "I'll read from the contract instead."

Clearing his throat without the need to do so, Fran started reading:

"S-ranked Standard Multi-generational Contract, introduction: for all the_ idiots_ that did not even think of asking for an explanation from your contractor or family-" "I'll read that!" Eri forcefully took the papers away from Fran that could surprisingly resist such an action without being ripped in half while looking at him in confusion; after all, he could've definitely stopped her from taking the papers away if he wanted to.

"Why the blank stares? I didn't read wrong: that part was recently re-written by the Arcobaleno because these kinds of problems have been increasing lately; it saves the time of explaining this kind of stuff," Fran pointed out in indifference, completely ignoring the fact that no one in this room (except for Masako) knew of who or what the Arcobaleno were.

For that, Eri rolled her eyes as she started reading the contract: "For all the idiots that did not even think of... What the hell, this really _is_ written in here!" Eri exclaimed incredulously, waving the papers around as if they weren't really old at all. _What kind of professional contract is this supposed to be?!_

"Tch, I told you that it was true, you just didn't believe me~," Fran said while pouting childishly but the apathetic tone in his voice had completely ruined all chances of him ever garnering pity from anyone, even though that was not his intention in the first place. _Cute..._ Miki thought but made sure to keep in the deepest pits of her mind so that it would never be found again.

Eri could only glare at Fran as Miki suddenly took the papers from her hands. "What-"

"Don't worry, leave this to me!" Having noticed that things weren't moving forward at this rate, Miki decided to try to be reliable in this situation and started reading: "For all the idiots that did not even think of asking for an explanation from your contractor or family, there is a summary of all that you need to know: This world is completely sealed off from yours, and the only way for us to get out of here is by signing a contract with you; in other words, you shall be the link that connects us from this world to yours."

"Why would we want to get out, you ask? There are many reasons, but the most common is the fact that this world is boring beyond belief: everything works by the clauses of some contract and the climate sucks too; it's too freaking hot in here, damn it!"

_... Just who wrote this thing?_ Miki asked herself before continuing on, "Your world is much more interesting and there are many more things in it than there are in ours and that is why we decided to take advantage of this world's power of contracts and sign them with you humans. It's simple: you sign your name on that space below while the contractor signs his name next to it and you're done, just as expected of someone as great as me!"

_It's like 10 different people wrote this!_ "Ignoring the stupidity above, you're probably asking on how this could ever benefit you: you start out with the default clauses of being able to call upon your contractor at any time and having your contractor protect you at all times as the clauses that balance out how fair the contract is but if you want, you can change those to your liking or add more clauses."

"Unfortunately, for you to add clauses to the contract, the contractor also has to add some of his own so that the contract is considered 'fair' for everyone. If the contractor doesn't want to though, he can just write that he has no objections and it will be added anyway; this is also applied to you so don't be surprised if your contractor wants to add clauses too. To make this easier for everyone, there's two columns below just for doing that: the human's clauses are on the right and the contractor's on the left. Expect to save a lot of money from this and if you do, give it to me."

"By the way, as the title suggests, this contract is passed from generation to generation: when a human's time is up for the contract, it has to be signed by that human's son or daughter before the expiration date or the contract disappears; if a contractor is replaced, the contract has to be passed down to the next generation immediately, even if they happen to be too young for that. Good luck with the contract and remember: in a contract, consent is everything!"

"... Disclaimer: Verde was in no way involved in the making of this section."

**. . .**

**. . .**

Miki gave the papers back to Fran without saying a word, feeling more tired than she ever thought she would feel by just reading something. _That... might be the worst thing that I have ever read in my life..._ "Did you get anything from that awful explanation or do I have to make a drawing for you?" Fran asked even though the answer to the question was obvious; not that anyone was going to ever answer that in the first place.

"Let me see if I get this straight: there's a whole other world out there," Eri paused for approval and continued when she saw Fran nodding, "That world is completely sealed off from this one," as she saw Fran nod again, she continued, "And since that world sucks and you like this world better, you have these contract things that you sign with us that let you get out, am I right?" Fran nodded yet again, annoying Eri as he was doing that far too many times.

_... He's expecting me to believe that?!_ "But what does that have to do with us?" Miki asked as she saw that Eri had already given up wrapping her head around this situation. As much as she didn't want to be the one asking the questions, she wasn't expecting Hitomi to do it, so she had to take the responsibility.

"Well, do you remember Mukuro Rokudo?" Seeing that Fran was probably not going to explain anything properly (having to read from the contract only proved that), Masako decided to take over as she was supposed to have explained this to Hitomi before. "Long, long ago, the Head of the Hirosaka family signed that contract right over there with him; he wasn't a friend of the family, he was a contractor."

Masako was pointing at the papers in Fran's hands, confirming that the contract that everyone was looking at was the contract that their ancestors (excluding Eri's) had previously signed... with Mukuro Rokudo. _Mukuro? Nee-chan used to talk about how cool his boots were... But he was so creepy, why would anyone sign a contract with him?_ Miki thought as she tried to remember the rare times that she had seen or talked with Mukuro: they were never really pleasant times, she noted.

"Wait wait wait, are you telling me that all of this is true?!" Eri, not being a member of the family, had never met Mukuro in her life; that was not surprising as he would barely be at the Hirosaka residence anyway. Looking at everyone in disbelief, Eri was mostly surprised at how serious Masako seemed while explaining this; after all, she would only get serious when necessary and those times were scarce.

_If the contract is passed down from generation to generation, then does that mean that mom had to sign it as well?_ Hitomi thought, glancing at Masako. "I'm sorry that you had to be involved in this too," Masako said with a grimace, looking down in regret.

For once, Eri decided to stay silent, making Masako continue with her explanation, "Last week, Mukuro came to me while you were all in school; he wanted to pass the contract to his apprentice, saying that he found a much better person to sign a contract with." _And whoever that person is, I fear for their future if they agree to sign a contract with him,_ Masako commented in her mind, not letting herself make the expression of worry that urged to come out.

"I agreed to it and he left off; that was the last time that I saw him. And that leads to this situation: as the contract indicates, the contract has to be passed down to the next generation right away when the contractor is replaced," Masako finished explaining and turned to Hitomi and took her hand as if to try to calm her down. "Hitomi, that's you."

Those words rang on her mind: _"Hitomi, that's you."_ Those were the words that she was fearing from this whole situation but she knew that they would come to haunt her mind. _Why me- No, why us? This responsibility shouldn't fall on this family; and Mukuro was actually a contractor all along, whatever that actually is..._

"Why... did you do it?" Hitomi asked her mother as she saw her eyes widening in surprise at the question. "Why did you sign the contract? You could have refused, anyone could have refused; so why?" Hitomi's hand tightened its grip on her mother's as she looked her in the eyes so as to tell that she was serious.

_Now that she mentions it, why did mom sign the contract? After all, 'consent is everything', right?_ Miki thought, frowning as she reminded herself of what she had to read.

"… If you think about it, a contract is really only a link between their world and ours: imagine that you had been locked in a dark room for as long as you remember until one day, someone unlocks the door for you and guides you out there to live the life that you were missing out on; I like to think that me and the people that came before me were that person. It might sound like a burden but sometimes, there are burdens worth shouldering."

_For now, I can only hope that Mukuro is not walking on the wrong path..._ In the middle of that answer, a smile had appeared on Masako's face, almost as if remembering fond memories. Noticing this, Hitomi had also found herself smiling and although it was only a small smile, it meant much more than it let on. "Sooo, does that mean that the contract will be signed or did the sappy speech serve no purpose?"

Fran broke the mood immediately, putting the contract on the table and making gestures that suggested that he was impatient; however, his expression suffered no changes. _Is this really happening?_ Eri thought, looking around her and seeing that everyone seemed to be looking rather determined for this change (with the obvious exception of Fran).

_Wait, does this mean that this boy's gonna live here?!_ Miki realized in outrage from this revelation; not that she was completely sure that it was going to happen. If it did though, Miki could only imagine what circumstances would surge from that.

As all those thoughts were put aside, silence installed itself into the room as a reply was expected from Hitomi. _Well..._

**. . .**

"... Where's the pen so I can sign this?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

* * *

**Eri Tachibana:** Hitomi's best (and only) friend since 3rd grade, she is a seemingly normal girl with a talkative and straightforward personality, sometimes acting almost as a spokesperson for Hitomi when they're together. She seems to have a rather strict family though so she often comes over to Hitomi's house to the point of it becoming common-place in the Hirosaka residence.

Eri actually has some things in common with a friend of my brother (except that he's male) so it's kind of strange to write her for me since I almost never make a character based off of people that I actually know. I like her though and she'd definitely make for a cool main character for me.

Speaking of that, I also really like Hitomi: I especially like the fact that she barely speaks but that's fine because her family (and friend) cover for her; like, it just shows how they care about her. Besides, she also seems to be pretty blunt and I like blunt people and characters.

By the way, the contract was written by the Arcobaleno with the exception of Aria and Verde (that disclaimer was there for a reason ^^), **can you guess which Arcobaleno wrote which part? ;D**

Anyway, it's been so long since I've made a long chapter! Writing The strange land of Namimori really does make me self-conscious on my word count but in here I can just go ahead and write big chapters ^^! But I guess this was kind of too big? It doesn't matter, Fran's in it.

So look forward to more Fran? If you aren't looking forward to more Fran then I don't even know what you're doing in here XD


	3. Chapter 2

**First Words:**

* * *

**Hitsugaya Hibari Nico Robin - Hell yeah, Fran is awesome 8D! And my storyline is funny and... cute? I am moved beyond words to have someone think that, thank you! I'm so glad that this story appears to actually be working out, and I'll do my best to get more chapters out that can hopefully be funnier or of consistent (if not better) quality. LOL The Arcobaleno writing the introduction to the contract, I had fun writing that; I kind of sucked at some speech patterns but I tried :') Speaking of that, I really have yet to go deeper on what the Arcobaleno actually do... look forward to it since I actually have that concept already thought out (kinda)? By the way, thank you for putting this story in your favorites! ^^**

This story's first review... I'd explode but I would not want to annoy anyone with that ^^'

I'm actually surprised that this chapter is not longer than the previous one; it took some time to write and it felt so long... Maybe it's really because I put a lot of time into finishing this chapter: I spent _**whole nights** _writing this chapter, I literally was awake at _6 am_ while still writing this chapter! It's not like I'm that stumped with this story, it's just that I need a lot of pauses to carry on writing because I either get distracted easily, find the need to research some stuff about the characters or events of the series' cannon or I have to look through words on the thesaurus. Due to that, I can take _hours _to write a few paragraphs so I'm actually kind of slow at writing.

Either way, this chapter seems to be way more comedic than the previous ones by a lot so it might seem like it serves almost no purpose whatsoever; as for me though, I'd call this a 'transition chapter', simply because it's a chapter that helps me transition to the next. Yes, that means that the next chapter will (probably) be slightly more 'eventful' as more cool stuff will be revealed to you; even then, it will probably be mostly comedic but you know, that's pretty much this story in a nutshell: this story just doesn't really work if it's completely serious and believe me, I tried, that poem that I wrote on the prologue can describe the fact that I was making this premise be super serious instead of comedic and failing badly.

Don't misunderstand though, this story will have its serious moments: Masako really likes to hint at that in this story, if you haven't noticed. But then again, the seriousness won't be super dark or anything so this story will really keep a light-hearted tone on most things in it; I do hope that I don't fail at that though...

**You may see / in dialogue or thoughts: it's only there to show the difference between lines spoken at the same time.**

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Introductions**

* * *

After finally finding a pen to sign the contract with (as Fran didn't even bring one with him), Hitomi carefully slid the papers across the table for them be closer to her and wrote her signature below the many other signatures that were assumed to have been from all the people that came before her, lined up to the right almost as if in an extensive list of names. On the left of said list of names were only two signatures belonging to Mukuro and Fran, making Hitomi wonder on why Fran had no surname.

"... I'm done." Hitomi left the pen on the papers as she looked to the side so as to not feel the immense pressure put on her just to sign a contract; everyone's eyes were on her, and she was definitely not used to that, even on her birthday. _But then again, this is more than just a contract..._

With that, the tension in the room quickly faded away, making Hitomi look at her mother, almost as if seeking for her approval. "You did well, Hitomi," Masako said in a reassuring tone, smiling at Hitomi. "After all, it's not like you'll be alone in this; we'll make sure to help you whenever we can, right?"

"Yeah! You can leave this to me!" Miki exclaimed proudly although she was not sure on how she could even be useful in the situation that Hitomi had gotten herself into. Either way, she had full intentions of trying to be at least somewhat dependable, even if Fran seemed to be quite the odd person.

_Oh, what have I gotten myself into..._ Eri muttered in her mind while smiling sheepishly, looking at Hitomi's expectant gaze. "Who do you think I am? I'm not abandoning my best friend for something like this!" _Welp, if Hitomi's fine with it then I guess I'm fine with it too._ Eri shrugged and grinned right afterwards, noticing a small smile was surfacing once again on Hitomi's face.

"See? We're all with you so there's no need to worry," Masako said as her smile turned from reassuring to joyful as if to put everyone in high spirits; even so, she was still only looking at Hitomi.

_Everyone..._ "Hmm? Is it just me or am I being treated like the new pet of the house?" Even though he said that, there didn't seem to be some sort of negative undertone behind that question which was starting to not be surprising at all; everyone in the house was slowly memorizing the fact that Fran would be apathetic to almost any situation.

"Well, you are going to live with them and you are technically not human so..." Eri pointed out, still thinking about those facts herself which made her talk slower. _Wait, does he have to live with them? I mean, that one Mukuro person or whatever didn't seem to have lived here or I would have seen him at least once,_ Eri thought, not knowing of the fact that Mukuro would barely stop by the house to begin with.

Masako chuckled from Eri's words while Miki was reminded of the fact that Fran was probably going to start living with the family from now on, not being as optimistic as her mother. "That one was just low; contractors have feelings too, you know?" Fran responded with a blank stare, the great irony of his words being far too obvious for a proper reaction.

"B-By the way," Miki tried to speak up again, this time succeeding. "Is he really going to live here from now on?" She asked weakly, giving Fran a glance. _Well, he's probably not a bad person, right? So we might get along... right?_

Judging from how weird Fran was, Miki was starting to doubt if anyone could get along with him at all. "Of course he will~! It's not like he has anywhere else to go, right?"

"I'm pretty sure that you're indirectly forcing me to stay-" _**"Speaking of that,**_ we should probably get to know each other better since we'll be living together from now on; after all, we've yet to know anything about Fran-kun and it also looks like he never heard about Eri-chan at all." Masako had _completely_ cut Fran off in a very intimidating fashion, flashing a clearly dangerous yet cheerful smile at everyone.

... Needless to say that the tactic was quite effective, as expected of someone who had already mastered such a skill long ago; everyone had gone quiet. "Hitomi-senpai, help me, your mother is as bad as my master...!" Except for Fran...

_Why is he calling her/me senpai...?!_ Everyone thought, giving each other a blank look as if they could tell that they were thinking the same thing.

The fact that there was no urgency or any signs of distress in Fran's voice only made him not be taken seriously with his words, even more than he already was. "I think getting to know each other is a good idea..." Hitomi muttered as if defending her mother even though there was no need to do so.

"That's pretty much like starting over, right? Then I guess I'll go first: the name's Eri Tachibana so no, I'm not some hidden twin sister or whatever." _So it did bother you when he said that..._ Miki thought, looking at Eri in pity. "If anything, I'm the mysterious cousin that always hangs out at all the important moments!" That's_ what bothered you?!_ "And the awesome best friend too, of course."

"Oh, how creative!" Fran exclaimed in what seemed to be admiration if not for the way that he dragged his words and the fact that his facial expression did not change at all; at least he sounded slightly admired although whether that was serious or not was definitely questionable. He also seemed to have gotten over the fact that Masako had basically forced him to live with the family, Hitomi noted as she assumed that he would say more to it otherwise.

"... I'm Hitomi," Hitomi stated awkwardly, having an intense expectant look on her face directed at Fran.

**. . .**

_He already knew that..._ Eri, Miki and Masako thought in unison, their blank stares making Hitomi feel uncomfortable as she could only make something akin to a frown (because it was far more subdued) in return. "It's nice to meet you." Fran stood up, bowed and sat down again as he said that, making for the perfect response if not for the indifferent tone. _Don't act proper from something that awkward!_ Miki shouted in her mind, feeling that there was no one thinking the same thing unlike the previous times.

Fran's response... was surprisingly effective with brightening Hitomi's mood even though that was probably not his intention at all. _I wonder if it was on purpose…_ "A-Anyway," Miki started, looking somewhat nervous. "My name is Miki... Hirosaka, I hope we get along." Miki cursed herself for that pause, having hoped to make a good impression.

"I already know that; I heard all about it from my master," Fran answered bluntly with a blank look as Hitomi was trying her hardest suppress the urge to smirk from his statement, the irony being overwhelming. _Wow, it's like he deliberately tries to piss people off,_ Eri remarked as she noticed the glare from Miki._ And she tried so hard too..._

Even in this situation, Masako was still smiling almost as if watching a very interesting movie; the only thing missing was the popcorn... "Well then, that must mean that you already know my name. Even so, we barely know anything about you; do you really have no surname?" Masako also happened to be looking through the contract, curious about Fran.

"That's top secret~," Fran answered while making a peace sign, looking especially ridiculous from the fact that he still looked neutral. _Is it just me or does that really not fit in this situation?_ Eri thought, looking at him as if she had seen one of the lamest things in existence, as much of an exaggeration as that would be if applied to this.

_As expected of Mukuro's apprentice; getting information from him won't be that easy..._

**. . .**

"... So basically, we got to know nothing about each other from what was supposed to be 'getting to know each other better', huh?" Eri summarized in a straightforward manner while looking somewhat bored, checking if Hitomi felt the same way. _But then again, I didn't contribute much to this either..._

As far as she could tell, Hitomi seemed to be satisfied with everything that happened; somehow, Eri could read that in her indifferent expression through years of hanging out with her. "Pretty much. So, are you going to show me to my room or do you expect me to sleep on the couch?" Fran asked, his facial expression being very similar to Eri's except with less boredom.

"Oh yeah...! He's going to sleep in the guest room, right?" Although that sounded like a question, it was more of an indirect way of making sure that it would happen although Miki herself might not have been aware of that. _Then we can't call it the guest room anymore, I guess._

To her surprise, Masako seemed to be confused with her words, looking at Miki curiously. "Guest room? We don't have one, Miki; what made you get that idea?"

"What? We do have one! The bedroom at the end of the hallway, upstairs!" Miki argued, pointing to each direction that she described as if to make sure that her mother would be able to perfectly picture the path to said room. "What else would it be used for?!"

Masako processed her daughter's words carefully and when she was finally able to understand what Miki was talking about, she started laughing with no hesitation, greatly surprising Hitomi (although not fully showing it). "Mom?"

"W-Well, I'm not surprised that you don't know that but..." Masako paused and breathed in and out, not wanting to talk while laughing. "That's actually Mukuro's room; he did live here, you know?" _He did?! Then how the hell did I never see him before?!_ Eri exclaimed incredulously in her mind, surprised at the fact that there was someone that (technically) resided in this house that she didn't know of. "Although considering this situation, I'd say that it will become Fran's new room since we there's nowhere else for him to stay."

_After all, Mukuro is no longer going to return to this home anyway..._ Beyond that smile, that was Masako's thought on the situation, deciding to not drag such matters onto it. "Ew, do I really have to stay in the former room of my master~?" Fran whined in an almost childish manner, looking to the side in what seemed to be disdain (?); although those emotions could be conveyed, his sarcastic or apathetic way of saying things did not disappear at all.

"We could share my room if you wan-" _**"Nee-chan/Hitomi!**_ **What were you saying again...?"** The great, dark intensity of Eri and Miki's words could be seen by Hitomi, making her immediately give up on her suggestion; when Eri and Miki were (exactly) on the same page, they were far too scary. _I only wanted to help out..._

As Masako chuckled at this scene, Fran was looking fairly neutral to the dark energy directly next to him on both sides. "Whoa, you must really have a tough time around here, Hitomi-senpai; dealing with people that have such dirty imaginations is not easy." Even so, he still commented on it, looking slightly (but only slightly) sympathetic, almost as if suggested that he had dealt with similar situations before.

... Although from the fact that he was in many ways calling Eri and Miki perverts, one could only question if he was being sympathetic towards the right situation. Hitomi would giggle if not for the death glares (obviously directed to Fran) that could be turned to her if she dared to do such a thing; despite her mostly not-so-emotional personality, she did happen to possess a sense of humor.

_Seriously though, why is he calling her/me senpai...?_

That question would forever remain in their minds as they assumed that no answer would come from him... "Anyway, since we got to know each other better for now, we should get Fran-kun to his room; have you noticed that it's evening already?" Masako offered, standing up from the couch and giving one look at the clock hanging on a wall just above the TV while smiling cheerfully.

_No, we didn't get to know each other better at all; if anything, this only served to piss everyone off!_ With a scowl on her face, Eri looked at Hitomi's fairly satisfied expression, regretting it right away. _Except for Hitomi..._ She sighed. _Well, she's also the kind of person that's satisfied with only inviting her best friend to her birthday party so I guess I'm not really surprised with that one._

"Huh, evening already?! Time passes way too quickly!" Miki exclaimed in disbelief while looking at the clock intently, not thinking of the fact that she could've easily checked such a thing through the windows. "Wait, isn't it past the time for Eri-nee to go home?"

Eri waved her hand in dismissal of that topic, smiling carelessly. "Don't worry about that kind of stuff at Hitomi's birthday, I've got it all under control! I actually called my parents beforehand so they know that I'm sleeping over because it's a special occasion." _You didn't even ask mom for permission, did you?_ Miki stared sharply at Eri almost as if she would get the (predictable) answer to that question if she stared like that enough.

"Oh, so you're sleeping over? It looks like Hitomi won't ever be alone on her birthday, how considerate of you!" Masako smiled playfully as she said that, looking at Hitomi to see if she would be at least somewhat embarrassed with her words; although she wasn't embarrassed, she definitely seemed happier than before. _Why was I even thinking about permission, we practically have everything ready for her to spend the night here at any time..._

Even though there was still no clear indication that everyone would move out of this room yet Fran was already standing up, looking at Miki and Eri as if they were ants compared to his present height (because they were still sitting on the couch). "Why does Eri-san get to sleep in Hitomi-senpai's room when I get my master's former room? I'm supposed to be her contractor, you know?"

"You're a boy!"

"I'm a completely pure and innocent boy~; suggesting such things corrupts my purity, do you want that? How cruel, maybe you're actually a sadist?"

"... Why did I even bother?"

Miki gave Eri a look of pity as she saw her getting utterly crushed (mentally) by Fran's words, deciding that it would be best for her to not argue with Fran on anything either. "So, what are you sitting around for? Fran-kun's new room is upstairs~!" At her mother's somewhat enthusiastic words, Hitomi stood up right away as everyone else followed her lead and did the same.

"You haven't given the contract back to me yet," Fran pointed out, making Masako look at him curiously before strangely switching to a far too carefree smile.

You see, Masako happened to have the contract in her hands as she had been looking through it before. Hitomi had actually failed to notice this even though she was right next to her but she decided that she would be better off not mentioning that. "Oh, the contract, _of course!_ How _careless_ of me to hold on to it when it's not even mine anymore! Besides, contractors are the ones that hold on to the contracts, right?"

_Why would she still want those old papers anyway?_ Eri looked at Masako in suspicion but it soon faded away as she didn't feel like dwelling on matters that she didn't understand for too long. "Then give it back to me already," Fran said, his words (ironically) as sharp as a knife yet with a deadpan tone.

Masako reluctantly (yet trying to hide it with a smile) gave the contract back to Fran, who folded it yet again and shoved it on one of his pockets, looking straight at Masako afterwards as if to find her intentions but still looking pretty much the same. "Well, now that _that's_ done with, let's go!" Masako proclaimed, letting herself not be fazed by what had just happened and walking towards the door, turning around and gesturing the others to follow her even if almost everyone knew the way to that room.

_Mukuro's former room, huh? Now that I think about it, I barely went there..._ Hitomi thought in curiosity, being unable to imagine what Mukuro's room would truly be like.

* * *

**. . .**

* * *

As Masako opened the door and went right in, she announced, "And here it is!" When she actually took the time to look around though, most of her energy faded away. "Well, since Mukuro was barely here it doesn't have much so it may be easier for you to settle in, no?" Even so, she was still smiling as she turned around to see everyone's reactions.

"... Mom, are you sure that this isn't a guest room instead?" Miki asked while thinking about it at the same time, unconvinced that Mukuro even lived here. _If anything, the lighting in this room matches Mukuro, I guess..._

As Miki had pointed out (in her thoughts), even with the lights on the room was strangely dark compared to all other divisions of the house. The lights were faint, almost as if they could go out at any moment and formed many shadows; because of that, the room had a somewhat eerie feeling to it. _Okay... I am _so_ glad that I always slept in Hitomi's room now,_ Eri thought while uncomfortably observing the shadows around the seemingly normal furniture.

And truly, there was nothing special about the room beyond its lighting: there was a bed with white sheets that did not seem to have ever been used, a closet that was close to it, a desk opposite of the bed with nothing in particular on it and a bookshelf nearby which seemed to be accumulating dust. "Have we ever used this room for guests before?" Masako answered Miki's question with a question, hoping to not have to flat out tell her daughter what she truly thought about the situation.

Miki didn't even bother saying anything further as she looked at how unwelcoming the room was. "Wow, there's barely anything that reminds me of my master; this is better than I thought," Fran commented, probably being the only person in the room to not really care at all about the strange lighting.

_So he was expecting a worse room out of Mukuro?_ If this was one of Eri or Miki's thoughts, they would probably sound somewhat disturbed but since this was Hitomi, she was more curious than anything. "So, does that mean that this is good enough for you?" Even though Masako asked that question, the answer was supposedly clear to her.

"Nope, but I'm going to be forced to sleep in this room anyway." And that answer was not this; if anything though, it only amused her instead angering her. _Although he's Mukuro's apprentice, he really is nothing like him..._ As she thought that, Masako looked in curiosity at Fran approaching the bed and promptly lying on it without covering himself with the bed sheets, without taking his hat off (assuming that he could even take it off in the first place) and with his arms behind his... hat, a position that was supposed to be comfortable but failing badly (for obvious reasons).

It wasn't just Masako staring at Fran as he seemingly did nothing beyond that, everyone seemed to be expecting him to at least say something after that.

**. . .**

"What are you still doing here? It's getting late, you know? Are you all so creepy that you'd stare at someone that's trying to get some sleep?"

When he did speak up, they regretted ever wanting him to do such a thing to begin with. _You're sleeping like that?!_ Miki could only image how uncomfortable she would be if she did the same thing as she drifted off to the subject of how could one even get a hat similar to Fran's. "Maybe if you hadn't done that without any warning we would've already been out of here!" Eri protested, finding herself unable to deal with Fran without being somewhat mad at his strange personality.

"This is my new bedroom: what else would I do here?" He did have a point as there was literally nothing else to do in this room beyond sleeping (since there was nothing in it) but that wasn't particularly satisfying to Eri and the others, still looking at him as if unconvinced.

Figuring that nothing would really come out of sticking around in this room, Masako said, "Well then, since you'll probably be just fine from here, we should leave now." The fact that Masako was somewhat upset at not doing any more than this to help out was far too obvious, making everyone decide that it was probably not a good idea to point it out. "Goodnight."

Masako smiled as she walked out of the room, Eri and Miki slowly following behind. "Um, goodnight," Miki said before picking up her pace and going after her mother as Eri only waved at him, her mood still somewhat sour because of Fran.

As both of them went away, only Hitomi and Fran remained in the room. "Goodnight..." Hitomi muttered with a small smile before getting out of the room as well, leaving Fran all alone.

**. . .**

"Everyone is so rude; they went away before I could even say anything."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

* * *

**Miki Hirosaka:** She is Hitomi's little sister, an upbeat and energetic person that can express such energy in both positive and negative ways. Unfortunately, she is also shy towards people that haven't gained her trust, subduing said energy. She strives to be as helpful to others as she can which can sometimes lead to her making reckless decisions. Because of their similar no-nonsense behavior (although Miki is far more extreme), Miki and Eri get along well as they are quite the scary duo when teamed up together.

I could add way more to these character descriptions but this is not really the place for that so I won't really do it. Speaking of Miki though, I've been making her the one that retorts the most but she's shy around people that she doesn't know so she doesn't let them out! LOL I do hope that she gets used to Fran or she'll be pretty quiet throughout this story, and I like writing her when she's upbeat way more.

You've probably noticed that there are lots of ellipses in Hitomi's dialogue but it's really because she speaks in a quiet and soft tone of voice; I'm only trying my best to convey that. Anyway, I really have to improve on my vocabulary like, the amount of times that I had to check on my dear friends thesaurus and dictionary cannot be counted by hand! But then again, English is not my first language so I'm trying really hard to convey these expressions to you. Even though I say this, I also lack vocabulary of my own language because I have so many languages in my head...

I do wonder if my Fran bias is noticeable or not... I can bet that it is because of how much I like to make Fran talk; I can't help it though, he's so awesome! I can only hope that I'm doing a good job of portraying him and that you're enjoying this.

So... look forward to the next chapter? Awkward ending, I know...


	4. Chapter 3

**First Words:**

* * *

This story got **two more followers and favorites,** that's awesome! Thank you! And one of them is has also favorite'd and followed my other story which is also super awesome in many ways 8D

Haha, this chapter took a while, huh? Well, that's because I'm still planning stuff since I'm not sure where I'm going with this: I have a few scenes in my mind but you know, that's really all that they are and I need to connect them with the story. Besides, I suck at planning things since not much goes according to my plans. This chapter was one of said things that didn't go according to my plans: I had plans to introduce (better) a major part of the contracts but that ended up not happening and it will be probably left to the next chapter instead. Not that this chapter is useless, it introduces many other minor things! I think all of these segments have the purpose of telling you a few things about the characters and that yes, we are in Namimori and stuff happens there.

I also talk with experience in saying that yes, pancakes do take a while to make: waiting to flip them is the worst part and it's pretty hard to flip them well when you get to that too! They taste awesome though, I wish I had the patience to make them for breakfast; even if I did, I'd probably end up eating them one by one as I make them... They're good, okay?!

One thing that sucks is that this chapter isn't as comedic as the previous one but I think it still has comedy... right? Besides, it still has Fran so it's automatically awesome? I hope that this doesn't seem like a very serious chapter though since that was not my intention (I have other plans for serious chapters but this one wasn't it ^^'). I also find that this chapter tells you, in many ways, of how AU it is: I don't think I'll be following the actual story of KHR that much, if anything at all. I won't guarantee it though, as I might drop some hints or having them participate in small parts (but only small parts).

**By the way, you should probably assume that Fran's talking in his normal tone (indifferent?) until told otherwise, although those stances will also be narrated for the sake of having to narrate; when there's no mention of how he sounds though, just assume that he's sounding normal.**

**Clauses have been briefly (although not well) explained and will be explored in more detail later in the story; for now, if you're confused, I'll go ahead and tell you that a clause is a separate article in a contract so that you'll get an idea.**

**Mii-chan is what Miki is called by her friends ^^**

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 3: The transfer student**

* * *

In this morning, like many others (or almost every day), she had made pancakes for breakfast; although it was probably a bit strange, she just liked them that much as her mother used to make them to her on special days. When she eventually learned how to make them herself though, she abused such knowledge as she thought that they were the perfect thing for breakfast, even though her daughters (plus the occasional Eri) would have to go to school and could not afford to be late.

It actually takes a considerable amount of time to make a sizeable stack of pancakes for everyone so how did she manage to make them without having the girls wait for their breakfast? A big contributor to this was the fact that she was unemployed and also the fact that she was a notorious (around the house) morning person that would wake up even earlier than her daughters and they had to wake up earlier than 7 am to get to school. With that in mind, she would have quite the head start to do whatever she wanted, making the girls grateful to her for not having to worry about what to eat for breakfast in such mornings.

As Masako put the now clean plates from breakfast in their place, she couldn't help but glance at the lonely pancakes still on the table more than one time, worrying about them getting cold (which they were). Those pancakes were actually meant for Fran but he had yet to appear as she assumed that he was still sleeping. Well, he did have no reason to wake up early but that never really came to her mind at the time, making her regret having wasted time with that.

_Well then, it looks like I'll have to eat them..._ Even though she thought that, Masako wasn't at all displeased with the extra pancakes; if anything, the smile on her face could only say otherwise. When she was about to reach the seat to eat those pancakes though, she was interrupted by none other than Fran entering the dining room (the kitchen happened to be in the same room though), looking slightly more expressionless than usual; could it be from having just woken up?

"Ah, Fran-kun! Good morning!" Masako greeted while taking her eyes off of the seat completely as if she had never intended to sit there at all, flashing a cheerful smile at Fran. "You're late! The girls have already gone off to school and your breakfast is getting cold!" She glanced at what were almost going to be her pancakes as she continued smiling, glad that he even appeared in the first place.

Even so, it would be a lie if it was said that Masako was not disappointed at all for not eating those pancakes... "You call this late? You do know that it's currently 9 am, right? How harsh of you to say such a thing when you're the one that wakes up far too early," Fran said as he spotted the pancakes, making his extra expressionless disposition disappear. "Oh, that looks good; I can only hope that it doesn't taste worse than it looks." He seemed to have ruined what was supposed to be a compliment and Masako was almost certain that it was on purpose.

"I assure you that it doesn't," Masako affirmed while trying her best to not give him a blank look as she wanted to look proud instead. _Although he is completely different from Mukuro, he is still quite the problem child..._ At first, she thought that she would be able to deal with Fran just fine no matter how strange he was but that only seemed to be proven wrong with situations like this one.

Still looking apathetic (that apparently being how he usually looks), Fran took the seat that Masako had gone towards before as she went to sit on the seat opposite of his for the sake of talking to him better, even though he wasn't a person that anyone would really want to talk to; being the optimistic person that she was though, she didn't think of such things. When he took a bite out of one of the pancakes (from the fairly small stack of them on the plate), there seemed to be no changes in his expression as he uttered, "Meh." He shrugged while still eating, seemingly with no intentions of stopping despite his reaction.

Although she was still smiling, an instance of Masako's eye twitching was definitely seen; it was an obvious sign of her resistance against negative emotions. "By the way, I have a question," Fran said while eating, making absolutely no tension for whatever question that he was going to ask (if the indifferent tone wasn't already enough). "What did you want with the contract yesterday?"

Actually, the fact that there was no tension to prepare Masako for that question made it even worse, taking her by surprise and making her nervous as that was the one question that she did not want to hear. "Ah, well... Since the contract seemed to have more information now, I thought that it might have something that could tell me whether I could still get in contact with anyone that has previously signed the contract or not. As I think about it now, it really was a foolish idea."

"At least you're self-aware." That almost sounded like it was supposed to cheer her up but seeing as it was an insult, it didn't quite work. "Besides, if you're no longer bound by the contract, you can't do anything with it. All of those names might as well disappear, preferably my master's name; it looks even uglier since it's above my own signature."

Masako chuckled albeit weakly, finding that although she was expecting such a straightforward answer, it was still disappointing to hear such a thing. Even so, she recomposed herself as she was unwilling to let herself feel such emotions for long, especially with no good (in her perspective) reason. "Speaking of Mukuro, did he tell you anything about what he was going to do before giving you the contract?"

"Ah, so you want to meet my master? I didn't know that you were actually mentally ill but I guess I'm better off learning that now than never, huh? You could look for better places to die, you know?" Despite his words, he looked especially neutral to the situation as if making that contrast on purpose. "If you really want me to answer that question though, I heard something about Kokuyo or whatever and when I told him that I didn't care he stabbed me; my master is so cruel..."

_Kokuyo? The town near Namimori? What would he be doing there? It would've been more useful if he had been more specific..._ Even so, she was grateful for the information, not knowing the fact that Fran had actually listened to everything that Mukuro had told him; he just didn't care enough to give a full answer. He did get stabbed by Mukuro for saying that he didn't care though, so he was also definitely not lying. "Well, thank you. Even though I probably need more than that to actually get to him, it's better than nothing."

"Even if you do get to him, you'll probably die anyway. I'm done with breakfast," he stated as he got up from his seat and walked over to the entrance of the dining room, doing absolutely nothing about the empty plate left behind. "Good luck with your suicide attempt~...! Oh, and write a will so you can pass everything to Hitomi-senpai, it'll also make everything mine if my master was actually intelligent with his clauses." And so, he walked out of the dining room, leaving Masako to try her best not to be affected by his words.

_He didn't even read through the contract...?_

The worst part about it was the fact that Fran could have (or might have) actually read through the contract and know of all of the clauses while still saying something like that, but Masako (unfortunately) could not be sure of such a thing…

* * *

**. . .**

* * *

"Hey, did you know that there'll be a transfer student in one of the first year classes? I saw him turn in the papers the other day, he looked so hot! But in that bad boy kinda way, you know?"

"Huh? Are you for real?! We're first years, you know? Does that mean that he could be transferring to our class?!"

"Wouldn't that be super cool?!"

That was what Hitomi and Eri happened to hear from two particularly loud Namimori Middle School students while they had been talking themselves, making them go quiet for a while as they were walking towards the school building. "They didn't seem to be from our class, did they?" Eri, not wanting to just be quiet about the subject, asked such a question even without getting a good look at the girls that were talking all about it, hoping that Hitomi had been the more observant one this time.

"I don't think so," Hitomi answered, not planning on saying anything further than that. She did know that Eri wanted to talk about the alleged transfer student but Hitomi figured that she could probably bring it up on her own, like she always did. _I wonder how he's like: they did say that it was a boy, didn't they?_

Despite the fact that she was not going to contribute to the conversation, Hitomi was actually fairly curious about the transfer student although she still wasn't sure if she would ever go talk to him. If anything, she would probably ask Eri to do it for her since she was better at that kind of thing. "Well, from what they said he's supposed to be a delinquent or whatever so that might not be good news if he transfers to our class. But then again, what do they know? You can't judge a book by its cover and I doubt that she went to talk to him at all. Maybe he's misunderstood?" Eri said while smiling playfully, not at all taking that question seriously.

"That would be sad..." Even so, Hitomi answered it as if it was a serious question, glancing to the side as if already imagining such a scenario. "I hope that he fits in," Hitomi added, still thinking about that as if Eri had been serious about it. _I bet Hitomi just wants to talk to him, why's she always like this..._ Eri thought as she remembered that a there was a transfer student in their 5th grade that Hitomi had also wanted to talk to out of curiosity.

In the end, the one that ended up talking to that transfer student was Eri while Hitomi watched in slight interest: the transfer student never talked to them again beyond the occasional greeting, finding other people to hang out with. "Don't worry too much about it, he'll be just fine without us in his business! Besides, I bet he won't even be assigned to our class so it won't be our problem!"

* * *

**. . .**

* * *

"Class, there's a new student that will be joining this class; he actually came from Italy, meaning that he might not know everything about Japanese customs so you should all try to help him fit in. Go on, introduce yourself," the teacher urged although there didn't really seem to be a need to do so since this particular transfer student didn't seem nervous at all.

If anything, he was smiling cheerfully, something that neither Hitomi nor Eri would really associate with a delinquent. Actually, he looked nothing like one: he had short black hair and brown eyes while he was just wearing the Namimori uniform; he actually looked more friendly than anything which was a surprise considering what they had heard before.

"So much for those 'bad boy looks', huh?" Eri whispered to Hitomi from her desk as they happened to be next to each other in class; she would've giggled afterwards but since this was class, she played safe and refrained from it. _Was that girl blind or what?_ Eri thought mockingly, glancing at the transfer student as if to confirm that indeed, he looked nothing like a delinquent.

Hitomi only nodded in response, looking at him curiously. _So he _was_ misunderstood...!_ If Eri knew that Hitomi was thinking that, she would've probably sighed: one could say that she was lucky for not being able to read thoughts. Even so, Eri could still tell that Hitomi was curious, as she would always be in these situations. "I actually know more about Japan than Italy though," the transfer student remarked and chuckled in a carefree manner, yet again proving how he was more friendly than anything.

"I'm Takeshi Yamamoto, nice to meet ya," he greeted simply yet as cheerfully as he seemed to always look, making an overall good impression on the class. The teacher pointed to the board as if to tell him to write his name on it, confusing him for a second before finally realizing that and writing it down in somewhat average calligraphy for someone that supposedly came from abroad.

_From Italy? This guy?_ Eri thought, not so convinced about his origins. "Ah, so you were originally from Japan and moved to Italy, is that it?" The teacher asked, not really that curious to know of such information but asking it anyway. Yamamoto didn't answer though, keeping his smile and forcing the teacher to get to the point, "Anyway, your seat's over there and since we still have the time, we'll pick from what we left off in the previous class."

The class got visibly disappointed as Yamamoto went to the only seat that wasn't occupied, which happened to be next to Hitomi. After all, Hitomi's seat was in the middle row of tables so two people could be next to her: since Eri's seat was the on the side of the window, Yamamoto's was on the side of the door. _This sucks, now I have to write so that he doesn't hear us..._ Eri thought, ripping a somewhat small piece of paper from her notebook and writing in:

**'We got totally tricked, that girl was making stuff up =_= This is why listening in on conversations gets you nowhere. He looks pretty normal though :o'**

As the teacher had her back turned to the board, Eri successfully (without being caught) gave that piece of paper to Hitomi, who was a bit busy writing things down on her notebook. Even so, Hitomi read its contents and decided to reply anyway:

**'You said he could cause trouble if he was a delinquent so this is a good thing. I hope that he gets along with everyone.'**

Passing the piece of paper without warning and startling Eri for it (who didn't dare to make noise), Hitomi continued writing on her notebook although she was still fairly distracted; saying that she wrote everything in without mistakes would definitely be a lie. _I wonder how Fran is doing..._

* * *

**. . .**

* * *

It was now lunch break for Namimori Elementary School despite the fact that the students in Namimori Middle School had one class left until said break. This was due to the fact that lunch break in that Elementary School was longer than that of the Middle School, although not many people knew why.

Miki didn't really care though, happily heading towards the school gates with her group of friends: they were four other girls, let's call them A-ko and B-ko respectively to simplify them; after all, Miki's friends would change every year so their names were not of great importance. "Hey Mii-chan, shouldn't we just have lunch at the rooftop instead...?" D-ko asked, hesitating slightly: D-ko had always been the most insecure out of the group so this was not unexpected.

"What's wrong with going out once in a while? Come on, it'll be fun!" Miki insisted, grinning brightly as she started walking at a faster pace, urging her friends to do the same. Truly, Miki was the leader of her circle of friends. B-ko sighed yet she was the first person to follow after her with a sheepish smile on her face while C-ko ran after her and D-ko did so as well from the fact that everyone was going along with Miki, being quite the impressionable girl.

A-ko was the last one, reluctantly following about: she had actually been dragged by C-ko, her best friend, to this group and she wasn't really happy about that. "What if she doesn't have any money?" B-ko asked in concern for D-ko, not that she would ever bother giving money to her, trying to see if others would do it for her.

"Hmmm... You have a point," Miki stopped in her tracks thoughtfully, making the others almost bump each other from how sudden it was. "I guess I'll buy her something, although I'm not sure if I can afford it. If that time comes, we'll share!" Although it sounded so simple out loud, her mind was filled with many uncertainties on that solution but to not ruin the mood, she refrained from voicing them out loud.

D-ko nodded although she was still somewhat hesitant, wondering if she would have to pay her back. Even so, everyone started walking again, having now gone outside the school gates. "But what about my boxed lunch...?" D-ko meekly asked as she reminded herself of that fact; if they were going to eat out then what would be done about her lunch? She was also worrying in her mind about the fact that not much would be eaten anyway, judging by the amount of money that a normal student from Elementary School carried around (not much).

"Oh, that? That's easy, you just leave it for dinner!" Miki had turned to D-ko while she was talking, who happened to be behind her since Miki was almost always in the front; she never really liked that but she also had never found that she had a choice in the matter. "It's actually pretty cool since you-" Not feeling like having to stop just give her answer, Miki was going to look ahead but as she turned to the front, she spotted something that she didn't really feel like spotting at all, making her stop talking almost immediately.

_Fran?! What is he doing?!_ To her surprise, Fran was walking along the street, getting some weird looks from other people and not really caring at all. "Something wrong, Miki?" A-ko asked almost in a taunt, her amount of actual concern being very low although she was definitely curious on why she had suddenly stopped talking.

Fortunately, Fran happened to be on the other side so there was a high chance (in Miki's mind) of her not being seen; why would he need to look at the opposite sidewalk when he was already going somewhere? "Huh? Oh, nothing, nothing's wrong. Anyway, we're wasting our lunch break so let's go already!" Miki was about to start dashing off until she noticed that Fran had stopped walking. And he was staring...

"Ah." Fran had only let out that sound, almost as if he had realized on who she was but he had remembered the names of everyone in the Hirosaka family (told by Mukuro) beforehand so that wasn't actually a problem.

_He totally noticed me...!_ Miki would've tried getting out of there but she could see that her friends had already seen Fran, staring at him as if they were seeing something really weird. But then again, Miki was not really surprised with that since he was still wearing that huge hat that would make him stand out... a lot. "M-Mii-chan?" C-ko called, looking somewhat disturbed. "That weird stranger is pointing at you... do you actually know him?"

"Is he cosplaying or something? He looks so weird," B-ko commented, making Miki's mind sink further into despair. _What is he even doing here?!_ The fact that her friends seemed to be paying attention to him (probably because he looked very weird) as if to completely confirm that he did know Miki and that he was indeed pointing to her and no one else was probably the worst part of the situation, seeing as it would embarrass her greatly.

And if it embarrassed her greatly, it could be used as blackmail material by whoever in the group happened to not actually like her: Miki was suspecting A-ko but she needed more proof to kick her out of the group (or others could protest) so she naturally kept quiet about it for the time being. "I... don't know him at all, why is he pointing at me anyway?!" Miki assumed that it was to make sure that he couldn't be ignored by her which was obviously what she wanted to do.

... And he knew that well. "Really~? Maybe you just can't recognize him 'cause he's cosplaying, is he your brother or something?" A-ko smirked as she asked that, ready to make fun of her at the moment more proof is given to her that Miki was lying.

"Not really-" "Miki-san!" _Why use -san, you're way older than me! Why are you even calling me at all?! This can't be happening...!_ Although he was loud his tone remained the same, earning even more stares from the people walking along, making Miki even more embarrassed.

The fact that he cut her off was also something that she wasn't really happy with, although the same could be said for this whole situation. "See? You totally know him. Aren't you going to tell him anything? You should treat your brother respectfully, you know?" _He's not even my brother, I've known him for only one day!_ Even though A-ko was talking about treating Fran respectfully, she was looking at him as if he was the weirdest thing that she had ever seen (which it probably wasn't... probably) which wasn't really what one would call respectful.

"Miki-san!" He called again, making some girls like B-ko glare at him for how loud he was. _Aaah, what do I do?!_ Meanwhile, Miki had absolutely no idea on how to even answer to anyone, freaking out in her mind and trying to come up with something to do about this situation. "Could you please tell your friends to stop staring so intently?! It's ruuude!"

Said friends had all started glaring at him from hearing that, A-ko being the only one to glare at Miki instead. "What's wrong with your brother?! Is he even right on the head? I guess this is what I'm supposed to expect from your family, huh!" A-ko said, not as happy to be belittling her anymore but mad at Fran and taking it out on Miki since she actually knew her.

"Could you just _shut up_ for a second?!" All of them were completely shocked with Miki's words, rendering them completely silent: Miki was usually so upbeat but now... she seemed almost scary. "Actually, just leave, you were just dragged anyway! If you want friends so badly just look somewhere else because I'm sick of your attitude!"

Well, her friends just didn't know any better: Miki, will usually express anger with as much intensity as when she's cheerful; since she liked school so much though, she'd usually just be cheerful all the time. "Ooh, Miki-san is actually the type to be scary when mad! How surprising!" Fran seemed to be commenting loud enough for Miki to hear, even though no one but people passing by were paying attention to him.

"What did you just say?! I'm only here because she's here, I could care less about you or anyone else!" A-ko pointed at C-ko, making her nervous for being mentioned: after all, she wanted to be with Miki's group so that kind of thing could make her have to leave. Not that she disliked A-ko but she also looked up to Miki somewhat for her upbeat personality.

But then again, after seeing that Miki was just energetic in more ways than one, she could only question if she was admiring the right person... "And what if she doesn't want to leave?! You'd be forcing her!" Seeing that Miki actually seemed to care about C-ko's stance on the matter (actually, it's just how she normally is), making the choice of picking a side much more difficult than before.

"Why would she want to be with you anyway, it's not like you're anything special!" A-ko retorted, reminding herself of the fact that Miki happened to be the most popular girl in class (but only in her class); she never really understood that.

_Now she's out of the group for sure!_ Miki thought although not as satisfied as she wanted to be at that moment. "What if she does?! She wouldn't have dragged you for no reason! I guess we'll have to ask her, huh?" Although it might have sounded like a reckless thing to say, Miki didn't really have anything to lose; her friends were replaceable anyway.

"I..." C-ko hesitated, deliberating on this matter although very nervous while doing so.

"I'll leave; I just can't leave my best friend alone!" Miki was surprised at this decision while A-ko smirked in victory, even though there was no downside to Miki 'losing'.

B-ko and D-ko were just as surprised, feeling sorry for C-ko as they thought that she was pressured to pick that side, seeing no advantage in staying with A-ko. "Ha, you heard her!" As A-ko was saying that, C-ko was already getting next to her, looking a bit nervous. "Then I guess we'll leave you all now: _I_ want to have lunch somewhere else," A-ko said confidently, enjoying her 'victory' while it lasted and being happy that she did have her best friend by her side after all.

"W-We don't hate you, okay?" D-ko wanted to reassure C-ko, even though she was pretty neutral to her in the first place. B-ko nodded as if it would support the somewhat superficial statement and C-ko smiled, even though she knew that D-ko and B-ko only intended to play the part of the good girl instead of actually caring.

Either way, C-ko wouldn't be hanging out with them anymore so it didn't matter. As Miki saw both of them going inside the school, she started grinning again, almost as if nothing had happened. "So, where were we?"

"Miki-san, that was not impressive at all! You didn't even kill her!"_ I forgot, Fran's here..._ The fact that he was telling her that she should killed A-ko while sounding so neutral made it even scarier, earning even more strange looks from people that were passing by.

B-ko and D-ko looked visibly disturbed, but said nothing. "Let's just go, okay? He's really not my brother so really, we should just get going," Miki insisted as B-ko and D-ko reluctantly nodded and they all started walking again, ignoring Fran.

"Geez, you could've waved!" Fran shouted, still sounding neutral for such words. As she thought about it, this all happened because Fran was there; in a way, it was actually a good thing that he was there since she had wanted to kick A-ko out for some time.

So Miki turned around, quickly waved and continued walking, trying her best to chat cheerfully with her two friends that were still somewhat shaken by what had happened.

_I wonder how long it will take for their spots to be replaced..._ She thought curiously, trying to remind herself of how many girls were in her class.

After all, she didn't really befriend anyone that wasn't in her class, not having the courage to approach anyone; if they were in her class though, she would be obligated to socialize with them which made it easier for her to befriend people there.

As Fran saw them go away, he stared at them blankly, thinking about what he had seen.

"I see that 10 is also a very complicated age..."

* * *

**. . .**

* * *

While lunch break for the Elementary School was still going, it had just rang for the lunch break of the Middle School as Eri let out a yawn while stretching herself before actually getting up from the chair that she was sitting on. "So, we're going to..." Eri let that sentence drag, noticing that Hitomi was staring intently at Yamamoto; Eri sighed, having already expected this. "Hey, Hitomi?"

Hitomi turned away from him immediately, trying her best to pretend that she was definitely not distracted and standing up from her seat, getting closer to Eri. "Yes...?"

"You want me to talk to him, don't you?" Eri went straight to the point, already knowing Hitomi far too well do deal with this further. Hitomi only nodded in response, making Eri sigh again. "I get that you think that I'm better at this kind of thing but I'm pretty sure that it would go well if you went up to him yourself, he doesn't look like he'd be rude to you."

It wasn't as if Eri actually wanted to have Hitomi go talk to him, but it was definitely better if Hitomi started take initiative on things; that was why she even said such a thing in the first place. "I guess so..." Hitomi muttered, although not so sure of herself: she wasn't nervous, she just didn't want to bother him; since Eri never really cared about that kind of thing though, she'd send her instead.

"You don't guess, you know! But if you're really that nervous, I can go with you but I won't say a thing, got it?" _I'm not that nervous,_ Hitomi thought, already walking towards him as Eri struggled to follow as Hitomi had given no warning to the fact that she was going to do anything.

Said transfer student seemed to be going to the exit but as Hitomi closed in on, he started looking at her curiously as he saw her stopping right in front of him. "Hello," Hitomi greeted yet not saying anything else, neither smiling nor frowning as usual.

"Yo!" Even so, Yamamoto didn't seem to mind at all, keeping his friendly demeanor. "You're next to my seat, right? What's your name?" As Hitomi didn't talk much, he was the one that was talking as if he had gone up to her and not the other way around, making Eri give her a blank stare.

At this point, Eri really wanted to say something but tried her best to resist such urges to see if Hitomi could do well by herself. "I'm Hitomi, it's nice to meet you." Hitomi thought about something else to say and after a decent pause, she added, "This is Eri, my friend." She was pointing at Eri, giving a small smile.

_Was that her idea of being more talkative?_ Not wanting to actually answer that question, Eri dismissed that thought entirely. "Oh, nice to meet you both!" Yamamoto said, almost as if to make sure that he would include both Eri and Hitomi in what he was saying. "To tell you the truth, I was kinda nervous since I didn't get to be in the same class as Gokudera but you seem pretty cool!" Yamamoto chuckled and grinned cheerfully, saying such things even though Hitomi didn't give off the friendliest impression of herself by barely speaking, but that was a normal thing for her.

If anything, it made Eri like him more as many people preferred to avoid Hitomi for how awkward it was to talk to her; besides, she would usually look fairly serious which would sometimes be confused with anger by other students of her class. "Gokudera? Is it a friend of yours? Ah, is that why you transferred?" Eri finally gave up being quiet and asked those questions, giving a lighthearted smile as she found that it was probably not a bad idea to talk to him.

"Huh?" To Eri's surprise, he seemed to be confused from questions that she thought had an easy answer, even though she wasn't being serious while asking the last one. Hitomi got startled a bit (and not showing it) as Yamamoto started laughing, almost as if he had heard something really funny. "I actually transferred in with him but I guess we were put in different classes."

_That explains why he didn't have anything to do with what that girl said; there were two transfer students! That's pretty rare though, what gives? Are they family or something?_ Eri thought, finding such circumstances to be strange; why would both need to transfer, from Italy no less? "Well yeah, it must really suck to be away from the only person that you know around here. But then again, I guess you can still see him often since you're family, right?" Eri had assumed as such but as she could never be too sure, she turned that statement into a question.

_So his brother was the misunderstood one!_ Hitomi thought, feeling sad over the fact that she could not talk to the other transfer student since she had no idea on which class he got assigned to; what if he couldn't fit in? After all, he was the delinquent, maybe he wouldn't make any friends or maybe he'd even cause trouble instead: such thoughts went through Hitomi's mind before she concluded that it couldn't be helped and reluctantly gave up.

Meanwhile, Yamamoto was laughing yet again, making Eri and Hitomi curious about what this Gokudera individual was to him as they figured that he was laughing because Eri was wrong in her assumptions. "I guess you could say that since we've been together for so long but I'm actually his Contractor instead," he informed in a carefree tone while grinning as if what he just said was in no way strange.

**. . .**

... Even though it was actually really strange for them. "What...?!" Both Hitomi and Eri reacted at the same time and in the same manner, although Hitomi's shock was somewhat subdued. _I never thought that I'd meet another one so fast!_ Hitomi thought, not having imagined another contractor beyond Fran.

On the other hand, Eri had thought that contractors were probably all similar to Fran but it seemed like that was not the case as Yamamoto was very different from Fran in personality and appearance. "I guess you can't really tell since you're human, my bad..." Despite his words, he chuckled and the smiled although that smile looked more sheepish than anything.

"... It's alright," Hitomi said, having already thought through this situation and not finding any reasons to not talk to another contractor beyond Fran; if anything, it could actually help her to know more about contracts. Even so, she said nothing further than that, not wanting to be the one asking questions.

_Can't you be more shocked at this?!_ Eri thought, still a bit agitated from this revelation. "But wait, does that mean that you can tell who signed a contract and who didn't?" She asked, wondering if Fran could do the same as they were both contractors; but then again, they were very different from each other, could they have different abilities as well?

"That's something all contractors can do," Yamamoto said, disproving that theory immediately. "There are actually a lot of people with contracts in this town and the one next to it so I got really surprised when I got here!" He laughed as if remembering some kind of embarrassing memory that one would laugh at after some time but not only was that a recent event but it was also not that embarrassing, making Eri and Hitomi confirm that he really was just that kind of person (one that was usually happy).

While Hitomi was mostly curious about the fact that there were many contractors, Eri did not have any particularly positive reaction to that information. _There are more contractors around here than normal, seriously? Why here of all places, it's not like this town is that populated; and the town next to Namimori... Kokuyo, maybe?_

_... I don't know why, but I have a feeling that we'll meet them all soon and I'm not sure if that's a good thing._ She could only hope that most of them were as nice as Yamamoto and not as weird as Fran.

Unfortunately, she was already assuming that the latter option was the most likely to be true...

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

* * *

**Masako Hirosaka:** The mother of Hitomi and Miki, a kind and optimistic woman usually seen with a smile on her face and sporting a cheerful and carefree attitude: sometimes that smile might not be so real though, as she hides things within her so as to not worry others. Her kindness and responsibility can sometimes have her make reckless decisions, as she tries her best for the people closest to her. She has also mastered the art of carrying killing intent through smiles, something that she finds convenient to use.

I like Masako, I find her to be an interesting character since she has more serious stuff to her; she's fairly fun to write too but I sometimes struggle with her vocabulary... and it's not pleasant.

Anyway, this chapter is done! Actually, the only thing that stuck to my plans for this was the first scene, one that I had planned on for a while. The rest was me going with the flow, and the major thing that I was going to include in this chapter ended up not being included and get pushed to the next one; that's fine though as there are many more things to explore than that!

But lol, I bet you were going like, 'What... the fudge...?' when you saw that Yamamoto was the transfer student but I guess you got why that was the case in the end as Gokudera is also here, yay! It might seem like I'll write the rest of the story as if I was writing from episode 2 of the anime but I really won't as I'm trying to focus more on the whole thing with the contracts so you can just assume that not much will follow the cannon of the story, although there might be hints of it or events related to it that suggest that kind of stuff; even so, it'll mostly have nothing to do with it.

I kind of wanted more Fran though but I guess having him for two scenes was enough and damn, I like writing Miki a lot when she's not being the straight-man or shy, I really do: she's so upbeat and energetic but she can also get really mad and stuff, I like her personality a lot. But LOL she's a pimp, a friend pimp XD She has yet to warm up to Fran though, so she'll probably go shy the next time she actually has to talk to him; at the other time Fran was at the opposite sidewalk! Yeah, that part was more about showing more of Miki's personality as you didn't get to see much of her in the previous chapters (beyond maybe chapter 1).

Anyway, look forward to more Fran and more stuff?


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